The field of the present invention relates generally to buildings, and more specifically, to concentric buildings.
The nomads of inner Asia are known to have used a portable dwelling structure made of light poles and covered with felt. These nomadic builders are believed to be the first people to use the principle of the tension-band in the support of a dwelling. This advance allowed the roof, or roofwall, of a structure to be raised above the ground without the use of internal poles or trusswork.
The tension-band support technique solved a basic architectural problem of eliminating negative space, such as the space formed by the walls of most tent structures as they meet the ground. Posts and trusswork blocking the interior of the dwelling were eliminated. Nomadic tension-bands were made of the hair of yak, camel or goat, or the wool of sheep, in the form of several ropes sewn side by side. The ropes were encircled around the building at the eaves to counter the outward thrust of the roof.
The tension-band principle has since been used in many applications, including the construction of lightweight containers (buckets, boxes, barrels and baskets), tubs, tankards, silos, and for large masonry domes such as those in the Levant and ancient Rome.
Although the basic tension-band technique has been known in the prior art, it has not been successfully applied to multistory buildings. Modern technology requires the maximum utilization of space within a building consummate with cost. In effect, the problem is to provide a plurality of buildings within a building.